Drivers

Trucking Insurance Company Founder Indicted

The founder and one-time head of a group that sells insurance to truck drivers has been indicted by a federal grand jury for using numerous foreign trusts and secret Cayman Island bank accounts as part of a scheme to avoid paying more than $7 million in income taxes and for lying to federal authorities.

Verna Cheryl Womack has been charged in a 10-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Mo.

Womack owned and operated a number of businesses associated with selling liability insurance policies to independent truck drivers, including the National Association of Independent Truckers. She sold those businesses for more than $35 million in April 2002. Since then she has operated VCW Holding, a venture capital firm

The indictment alleges that Womack opened at least 19 bank accounts and organized a series of nominee companies and trusts in the Cayman Islands to conceal a portion of her income from the IRS. According to the indictment, these allegedly corrupt endeavors were part of a scheme that began in 1996.

The indictment alleges that Womack filed federal tax returns that stated she did not have an interest in or signature authority over any foreign financial accounts, even though Womack allegedly knew that was false and fraudulent.

For example, the indictment says, Womack maintained a Cayman Island bank account in her own name for several years, with balances ranging from nearly $41,000 to more than $173,000. The indictment alleges that Womack repeatedly failed, year after year, to report her financial interests in her bank account to the IRS.

Womack is charged with one count of attempting to interfere with the administration of internal revenue laws and nine counts of making a false statement to a government agency.